This Months' Slogon

each month is dedicated to something that touches the Jenad heart... and we use it as our wallpaper.



This pic features our wedding cake courtesy of Ritz Carlton, they were very kind to provide the marzipan cake that we requested. Its nice, chewy and sweet. =D

KL KL

In a last min ditch, we took a road trip up north towards KL. hee... it was madness mixed with fun. Even though we were stuck in traffic jams, causeway holdups, we had great fun talking through the walkies, exchanging jokes and relayed driving instructions. hee...

first stop: KLCC! I recall last year, around the same time, I took a trip to KL with S & "roti boy" hee. and on our first day, we went shoe crazy! We bought like 3 pairs of shoes each, all at Vincci on our first day! So this trip, we are not going to lag behind in our shoes hunt! Vincci was a definite stop! but when we got there, we were not very impressed with the range of shoes this season, but I do know that S has been on the lookout for nice boots, so here's for you!


I thought that furry furry pair of shoes on the extreme right was so cool! especially when worn in cold temperate weather with light winter breeze... hmmm... feels perfect for a walk in HK right NOW. *wink*

As we were walking, we spotted a Leonidas! Yes, its a famous Belgium chocolate brand. It has a wide selection of chocolates, even something for the diabetics. Very cool, I remember Em used to buy loads for her daddy, now we've got good reasons to travel up north with her, Alex & Aldric to get some chocs hee....


Ah, the highlight of the trip for us was not the dazzling sales nor the great food selections... but a young little boy. Sunshine Josh! He's such great fun and great sport too! He never showed any signs road stress, she would happily sit in his baby chair, playing with his teddy bear or singing birdie or press all the buttons on the walkies hee... He would even pat himself to sleep! So amazing! His constant cherry smile was like smile therapy for all of us on the trip.

And he could spot a ballon in any color, shade, shape a mile away!



On the way back, we took a makan stop at Yong Peng and see what we spotted in the pond....

its soo huge! It got Gab so excited! He could not stop talking about how big the fish was and that it definitely weighed heavier than he did! ha ha ha... he even threw a coin on the fish to make his "secret" wish....

road trips are so much fun! got to do it again! =D

cool tee

are u misusing your imagination?? *wink*

Ad has a DOG!

Ad has his own doggie! Yes, finally, I do not have to "share" my beagle with him hee...

best part of this dog is.... something that I would approve. Yep, he's so cute!!!! but it took us awhile to get him out of his cage though. He's hooked up with 3 ultra strong wires to anchor him firmly to his "cage". He's a great pal to have at home, he leaves our stuff alone, totally obedient, doesnt go round chewing on our wires, shoes not even barking unnecessarily! He shakes his head and moves his ears when he's happy!

Ha ha ha.... by now, if you have not figured it out yet, Ad's got an iDog! hee.... he barks, whines all the same and even has a personality!




see how he moves his ears UP? hee.... he's readily hooked up with any electronic items that plays music, even a transmission radio! hee....

Now, that you've met our latest pet, you've got to see how his master gives him "instructions".... ha ha ha....


Ad is trying to talk to his iDog to develop his personality. This dog certainly has got style and charm, I wont mind keeping him around me longer hee.... (till the end of the battery life or the breakdown of his circut board....)

Christmas is in Orchard Road!

Wanted to blog about this long ago, but had to meet a deadline and wanted to give myself some motivation to finish that up before entering the world of blogging again... hee... din really worked. some work just dun get done! man....anyway.... Ad & I went Orchard Road crazy, went down almost everyday before Christmas. Hee... anyone would think that we are really CRAZY. But check out how Christmasy it is!

Bright lights everywhere!


There's even 3 wise men along the streets, sharing the message of Love, Peace and mostly important seeking Wisdom and knowing God.



Ad took a copy of the brochure that was being distributed by the many volunteers on the streets and discovered that it was organised by St Andrew's Cathedral, yes, the whole entire celebration, events, performances were organised by one church. Amazing, the power of wanting to spread the word.

In addition, many other interesting street performances filled the streets, made many many curious passerbys stop and look, laugh and smile, while others like me, sucker for blogging, took tonnes of pictures hee...





Such a beautiful feeling to have bright lights dazzling the feastive mood out of you.

And we're looking forward to the day to receive presents as tall as these! hee...

MY liu liu

hee.... nope its not some branded goods.... or a mis-spelt miu miu... =PPP

its just great to see big huge posters of my favourite, most gorgeous looking singer-actor Andy Lau. He's everywhere! =D Glad that he still has the charm 20yrs later....in fact, he seems to be getting more charming as he ages.

Quote

" Get your facts right first, then you can distort them as you please." - Mark Twain.

how true this quote is, in my observations, many professions thrive on the "distortion" part of the quote, even though the whole conversation does not contain false information, it can leave a different impression on the other party depending on where the emphasis is placed.

many a times, words are taken out of context from one's mouth and misinterpreted in another's ears.

In chinese we call it: 說者無意 听者有心。

Jenad Christmas 2005

This year, we set up our nice nice Christmas tree early. After mega efforts to shift some of the furniture around, cleaning all the dusty corners, the tree is finally UP!

So nice to have the Christmas tree back on again. I missed it!



did you see the loads of presents under it? ha ha ha... yes, we have started the presents spree for some of our friends but mostly are for Ad's biz partners etc....



looking forward to a very merry Christmas... this year, we'll be singing for the midnight mass for Christmas in church, come join us if you've got time on Christmas eve. =D

I was in labour...

Each weekend seems to hold a different surprise for us.... in the last weekend, I was awaken up at 830am in the morning by ringing of my hp, I had thought that it was the alarm that I set on it, I tried putting it to snooze a few times and it did not "obey" me. That was when I was more awake to pick up the overseas call. The call has woken me up with great news! Yes, I was going to be in labour!!!

ha ha ha.... u must think that I was pulling your leg. But nope! I was going to be in the delivery suite of dear friend Em. (the lady who drove us to Amsterdam & Luxembourg 3hrs each way when we were in Brussels) The call was from Al, her hubby, who was in NY at the time of her delivery... so I was called on to keep her company in the delivery suite!! Such an honor!

I quickly leaped out of bed and jumped into the shower (got to prepare for the long haul cos her waterbag burst without any contractions....) Got myself nicely cleaned up and borrowed a digicam from my bro (another great blessings that he only lived 1block away!! :) ) Jumped into a cab and reached her within an hour of getting the morning call. (another great blessing that Singapore is such a tiny country hee..)

It was so exciting to be able to witness yet another birth (when I was in sec school, we had a program to be attached to a hospital, there, my classmate & I witness our first C-section birth, but it was too long ago, less personal with the mummy, so this is definitely way to exciting, PLUS, we are also looking forward to the day when its my turn... in God's time).

When I reached the hospital, I was expecting to see Mama-to-be Em to be in pain because of the contractions and perhaps confined to the bed in preparation of the labour. Instead, she was in a crawling position, trying to reach to the other side of the bed reaching out for something in the drawer! She definitely does not seem to be in any form of discomfort!! Looking at how agile she was, she doesn't even seem to be due for delivery!! ha ha ha.... We had a good laugh ;)

It turned out that she had her waterbag broken in the middle of the night at around 130am. She called the hospital and she was advised to be admitted to the hospital to be prepared for the delivery. This baby is 3weeks EARLY!! His daddy is still far far away in NY, everyone was expecting the baby to be about 1-2weeks early. Never 3?? So daddy was not able to come back in time for his delivery.... Thus, Aunty Jen was called to document and assist in the delivery instead hee...

So at 930am, mummy was trying to clear her bowels (through the medication from the doctors) and get ready for the delivery.... at 11am, we all went down to the delivery suite with her. By then, her parents, sis, dr. morbid & myself formed the escort team. Right at the entrance of the suite, the nurses stopped the rest of the escort team from entering the delivery suite. It happened so quickly that I did not have time to respond to that, I just declared that her husband is not around, and I'm the appointed "companion" and went straight inside with her.



It was time for her to have a drip set on her left hand, so that she can get some "food" in her system since she'll be forbidden to eat anything from then onwards. Woah, the drip ran really really FAST! In about half an hour, one bag of 500cc of saline was all gone into her body! hee....

Next was the really scary part. EPIDURAL! Yep, it was a tough procedure to insert anesthesia down the spinal cord to relief the contractional pains in the abdomen. The anesthetic doctor, Dr. Raymond, came into the suite with a big grin on his face and started explaining the procedure to the both of us. It sounded really dangerous and has tonnes of side effects. Like possible tension headaches for upto 4days!! During the run of the anesthesia, the person will feel itch, puking, shivering and many many more. Taking on the epidural itself IS a dangerous process, if the insertion of the needle is not inserted correctly, the patient may have other side effects. So its tougher to have a perfect insertion on those with crooked spine. Guess what.... Em has one of the most crooked spine that Dr. Raymond has ever seen! Knowing that sent more shivers down our spines. As Dr. Raymond was explaining the procedures to us, Em showed signs of anxiousness, I kept assuring her that dr. has to give us the worst case scenarios to prep us. But the actual process will be bearable.

Shortly after his explanations, Dr. Raymond started to suit up into a sterile robe and set up his "epidural" station. Em was sitted upright, with her back towards the doc and had a pillow to hug on to. I held her hands for assurance and I could see the whole process of setting the epidural.... that was quite FRIGHTFUL! I commented that if this process really freaks me out, I'll just skip the whole pregnancy part and dive straight for an adoption. Hee.... okay lah, I chickened out, I did not peep so much to see the whole entire process, but judging by the many jerks that Em had from all the poking and insertion, its definitely not a fun process....

So she's got a drip on one hand, an epidural-linked drip on her back to the right side of the bed, two baby monitors on her belly (one for the baby heart beat, one for contractions of the uterus), blood pressure monitor for mummy and another tube for drainage of her bladder. Lots of stuff hooked up to her and she doesnt feel a thing!! heh... lucky gal! No contractional pains wan leh!!! And its only 1230pm. She only 2.5cm dilated. We've got to reach 10cm for her to start the pushing process.... and its just waiting for her to dilate further. There was a cosy arm chair beside her bed for ME, it can recline backwards for more comfort. We both took that chance to lie back and relax... chatted and doze off (sorry was too comfy to take pictures of the armchair hee...).

Inbetween our chats and dozing, the nurses came in at 15mins intervals to check on the heart rates, blood pressures, taking down all the records. At 3pm, an MO came in to do another check, well, still at 3cm only. She said should be around 10pm or so for the delivery. Good thing she gave us good warning, allowed us to gauge the time to inform the rest of the family and friends. Goody, more sleep hee. I was really enjoying the nap. Though I wont be the one doing the pushing of the baby, dun really need that "extra" rest but, what the hack, already there what must also enjoy the pamper. If only that chair has massaging functioins, maybe Osim can consider sponsoring their chairs to entice future parents in buying their own armchairs hee.... Good marketing avenue.



A corner of the suite where many many stuff were kept, super organised!


Ad came to the hospital in the evening and brought with him a pair of walkie talkies hee... we tested them out... yeah it works! We have comms!! for the rest of the evening, we all had fun talking over the walkies, exchanging silly jokes.... they even coined a temporary name for Em & Al's newborn.... called "Emlex" ha ha ha... quite awlful sounding hor?? At 6+pm, another check on Em, confirmed that she's dilated to 6cm!! Yeah, 4 more hours to go! We were getting excited hee... tempo buiding up both inside & outside the delivery suite heh...

The MO consulted her gynea and instructions were given to increase the medication to induce labour. All this while, Em had to endure the side effects of epidural, it started with lots of itch all over the body, esp. in the zone where the anesthesia ends! She commented that she's scratching like a monkey! hee... wonder if monkeys have similar chemicals running through their system hee... Also, she gradually felt more of the puke coming, until she finally PUKED! Oh man.... lots and lots of stuff came out! (but she din eat anything leh...) Although it was mostly clear fluid, I was relieved to see that she's not puking out her bile, yet.... She felt much better after puking, shortly after the puke-relief, she started shivering... another side effects of epidural. We had the itch-puke-shiver cycle for quite a while until 9ish.... At the 3rd puke, she was definitely puking out her bile juices... that kinda got to me.... the strong stench of bile... I had to turn away to reach out for the paper towel to avoid puking myself! heh....

A probe was set to monitor the baby's heart beat to a even greater detail... super cool!



then at 930pm, MO came in to do the check... VOLA she's fully dilated! She's READY!!! We totally did not expect it! So I had to quickly walkie the good news over to the "pom-pom" crew outside to standby for the GOOD NEWS hee. A midwife came in and started explaining the breathing-pushing procedures to Em & me while she set up the room to prep for the Dr. Anna's arrival to receive the baby. She got Em into the sit up position, Em was suppose to take a deep breath through her nose, hold it, and PUSHHHHHHHHHHH for 10 counts and then take a short breath, PUSH again! She's got to do it twice in a row for the baby to stay pushed out or something like that.... She got Em to practise practise abit.... and before we knew it, she was telling us that she can SEE the baby's head!! like a 10cent coin, then 50cent coin!! SO cool! I took a peep! hee.... I saw his hair!

the next few mins happened so fast that it was almost impossible to capture them in picture. I had to walkie over the good good news to the "pom-pom" crew and they all got ecstatic!! So was I! Not knowing what to expect, I just held Em's head when she had to push, watched her face, at times, she would be sooooo pale after the 2nd push. Poor thing. Dr. Anna came in, got dressed and more midwives came in and all was helping Em to do the PUSH routine. After a few mins, baby "emlex"'s head popped out! hee.... yah, just his tiny head. Em had a short breath-break and the pushing started again, this time his tiny body came out! SO FAST! Baby "emlex" was placed on mummy while Dr. Anna and the midwife team started to check on him, clean him, and cut his umbilical cord. And of course, baby "emlex" was SCREAMING his tiny lungs out! hee....

more pushing and the afterbirth or placenta came out. Dr. Anna showed us how it worked, we were super educated boy! sorry forgot to take picture AGAIN! but managed to capture many of baby's firsts hee....

I got his first SCREAM, first weight, first pee, first height measurements, first head circumference, first bath, first suckling sound, first glance at a digicam.... I guess, its enough to make up for the difference lah hor??



Dr. Anna was patiently explaining to Em on how she'll feel over the next few days as her body is recovering from the labour, the stitches, the birth etc. All this while she was stitching her up ha ha ha... interesting eh?

Soon, 1hr+ after the delivery, mummy & baby was ready to leave the delivery suite and go out and meet the pompom folks. A huge cheer was heard when we were been received. Yeah.... all in a days' job.

Baby's alert and curious about this new world that he's in. He's got strong affinity for technical items like his daddy. He'll stop crying to look at the digicam!! hee... yes, he's a cute one. Definitely going to be a bundle of joy for his folks! Congrats!!

winter polar bear am i

i think i'm a winter polar bear relative...

not just that i'm growing fatter with that tummy-like structure around my waist... but also the strong urge to just sleep the whole day and night.... the winter spirit of sleeping is getting to me....*yawn*

yeah...n i think i'll look cute in white.. hee...

The Fun Saturaday that ended so sadly...

The Fun Saturaday that ended so sadly...

Sat was pure fun! Me & PD went to Cineleisure for a competition!! hee.. yeah, we thought it'll be fun to try our skills at making a short movie at the iMovie competition organised by the iShop there. It must have been a while we last joined in anything competitive so to ensure our places for the competition, we got up real early and was the 3rd & 4th in line hee...

Woah, it was a real pressure cooker in the room filled with others who have used the s/w for a much longer time then us. We lost our precious clips a few times, had to re-insert new picture files, sound tracks several times over just to create a 30s clip to promote the store... and we were given 15mins!

We were seated in the front row, with 4 giant projected screens infront of us with the countdown timer spinning down to the milisecs!!! You can imagine how fast our hearts were beating when they said "Last 5mins"! Alot of screams were heard for sure!! (cos we were two of them gals who went histerical heh...)

And then they just shut us off the Macs immediately when times' up!!! (its a great feature for teachers or parents who want the attention of their kiddos away from the computer heeh....) BUt as grown adults???!!! There was tremendous amount of sighing in the room.....

but the kind-hearted organisers on seeing so many stressful faces, gave us another 5mins to complete whatever "junk" we've created hee.... so i was thankful for the extra time to sort out the ugly frames and grossly out of sync music pieces... and before I knew it... it was OVER!!!

It felt like we've just completed an examination, so much adrenalin was pumping through our veins!!! Definitely fun!! hee.... We kept giggling like little girls throughout the briefing session, I think the more serious competitors might have been irritated by our girl gestures hee... but who cares!!!

We went to conquer Orchard Road right after the contest!! I think we wanted to go to John Little to look for something, we ended up in the Cineleisure's Korean minimart, oogling at the delicious looking yummies, cute Korean actor photos and wondering how to use the cute kitchenwares... then as we passed the Famous Amos for the 2nd time, we took deep breaths and wonder if we should just BUY and eat it! Of course we managed to resist the temptation of growing FAT.... just RESIST!!!

I wanted to look for a cool bag last seen in Meridian many months ago... we took a stroll towards Plaza Singapura and to my disappointment I did not find that bag anymore!! So SAD!! I was really looking forward to picking it up for a friend whom I know would go crazy over it heh..... but... what to do??

We did a U-turn towards Centerpoint, when PD stopped to look at some tank tops, I spotted THE bag! I've been looking for it for the past 20mins and there it was!!! Sitting right at the top of the shelves.... but only a tiny corner of it was sticking out... so it was easy to miss it the first time.... YEAH! so happy! I got my first purchase of the DAY! And I'm sure my friend would be delighted to have it.... plus it was on offer!!! COOL!

We hunted for a right place for lunch.... it had to meet our budget of not more than $20/person... and must be something FUN, different... So we decided to head towards Pepper something place, a Jap. concept shop of mini-tepanyaki, where u decide your own meat/dish and you'll b given a hot plate to cook your choices on it! Its in Taka.... we're in Centrepoint... lots of distance to cover....

Along the way, we got caught up in two lucky draws, hee..... PD was shocked at how I try to negotiate with a lady just to get US both into the lucky draw....

You see.... UOB was have a "drop-the-ball" mini draw... we heard the MC going "iMAC..." and both our heads TURNED instantly! Of course anything that sounds remotely Mac will catch both our attention since we started the day with the iMovie competition heh.....

And as we were getting ready to join in the draw by checking out the real prizes and digging our wallets for the UOB cards... the MC asked a lady in white who is standing at the end of the line to raise her hand. He announced that she would be the LAST person to be in the draw!! I was so disappointed.... Then I thought about it, technically, anyone standing BEFORE her would not be breaching the MC's decision right?? So all we need to do is to be really nice to her and convince her to let us stand before her... hee... After a bit of persuasion, she was agreeable to us standing before her. Afterall, its a street lucky draw, mini prizes (with iMac mugs...) she's really got nothing to lose. Plus she was really in a happy, fun-loving mood, she said OK and we went in front of her hee... Now there are 3 of us gigglling.... heh.... see how infectious this girly outing can be?? hehe....

Yeah, I ended up with a notebook and PD got her iMac mug! hee... cool!

(and we are still trying to get to Taka in good time to have lunch... )

So we hurried along, outside the Singtel building, Citibank was having yet another FREE spin-the-wheel draw... ha ha ha... being abit HIGH and crazy, I went to approach them for a spin, cos there was really no conditions attached to the spin. It felt like a very carnival atmosphere. So Fun! Yeah, of course we got our spin, hee...*wink* I should have recorded PD's very shock face when I got HER recommended for the spin as well! ha ha ha....

yeah... lunch... getting more hungry by the min.... once again, when we entered the basement 2 of the Taka shoppping center, we got distracted by another credit card promotion ha ha ha.... too bad for them, the free gift wasnt attractive enough for me to sign up on the spot... :p

Yes, finally we arrived at our destination after many detours, lunch was GREAT! I ate the thin beef slices, poured so much yummy sauce over my beef and tao gay. hmm..... heavenly. PD also cleaned off her entire hot plate worth of veggie, beef, peas, carrots... hmmm.... yummy.... We are totally satisfied with our choice of lunch and our accomplishments so far hee.... Day is still young! only 4pm. Lots more of the Orchard road to cover, We want to see Timberland, Mphosis, Face Shop, Tangs etc etc etc etc....

And we did.... all that.... yup.... and it was STILL early! 6pm, we were outside Shaw Center, hanging our feet up, PD slipping her ultra sinful chocolate milkshake! (yes, its ONLY available at the Shaw Center outdoor outlet) Next to us, there was a family of 3, parents and their little girl on the stroller... I was amazed at how steady the little 2yr old was holding onto her ice cream cone.... she was happily chopping the top bits of the ice cream off her cone.... and her mum started to trade her cone with a ice milo... heh.... the little girl seems to have a sweet-tooth and din mind the switch. She took over the cup of ice milo and suck on the straw... and she can really DRINK I tell you. Within moments, she devoured about 30% of the drink! She was concentrating so hard on her drink, staring down on it. It would have made the perfect commercial advert for them....

We attempted to read in Borders, actually I was secretly looking for the Style mag, which was giving out free bags.... it'll b useful cos we're both lugging big shopping bags with us by now.... But unfortunately they did not have the bright orange bag anymore.... sigh... (at least I get to save some $$ and PD can stop rolling her eyeballs at me for being so cheapo! ha ha ha) Here I spotted RAIN! The Korean pop star-singer whom Steph talks about frequently heh.... ah... I wonder if she's already have a copy of it.... She's in Seoul at the moment, I also wonder if she's indulging herself with the K-culture so much that she forgets about her hubby... ha haha.... lots of wondering thoughts...

okies, legs tired liao... need to sit down again. We hunted for a nice table at coffee bean & tea leaves outside borders to wait for Ad to come and join us for dinner.

this is where the tradegy of the day started.... my hp was low on battery, so i put it on the table to wait for Ad's call and..... when we left the place, it was still left behind. :(

I only discovered it 20mins later..... and it was gone. forever. my anniversary gift from Ad has just vanish into the thin air (together with my pretty purple cross from Seoul!!!) No amount of words can describe my pain, my loss. It wasnt just a hp to me, it was a lifestyle, it was a gift which I've spent 3 months looking forward to it. It was also a symbol of my craz towards the K culture. My heart sank further with each moment of facing my loss. Yes, its the first time i've lost my hp in 6yrs of owning one. Lucky for me, since the hp is sooo new, my phone list has just been backup on my compt (thanks to the excellent bluetooth technology and the great iSync on the Mac).

At 840pm, we discovered the loss.... we tried to ask the folks around if they've seen my hp.... but of course whoever who took it, switched it off and must have thrown my sim card into the trash. That person could not be found. At 9pm, we were at M1 shop, getting a replacement sim card and another hp. The folks at the counter was really really nice, they did not charge me for the replacement of the sim card, they gave me a voucher to purchase a new hp, they also suggested for an upgrade of my plan which does not cost alot more monthly but will allow me to purchase another E730 at a discounted rate. At 11pm, I was holding on to my new E730. It felt strangely familiar and yet foreign. I'm still trying to get used to it.

At 12midnight, we made a police report about the loss... and interestingly, even with the raising cases of stolen hp, the chances of anyone recovering their lost hp is almost ZERO. What does that tell us about our society? I understood from the police officers that there is no use in hoping for the recovery... and its mostly actions of the young teenagers. What does it say about the morality of our younger generation?

I pray that whoever who took my most beloved E730 (with my badly missed purple cross on it) would NEVER ever do anything like that again. No money can buy memory and no money can buy integrity. I wish for this young person to realise the price of guilt and never harm another person with such actions again. Its okay for me to lose the precious hp but its not worth losing sleep, feeling guilty for the rest of your life over something that you can earn with your own bare hands, with pride.

Friends with purpose?

Today there was an event where I studied which two of my friends were also attending the event. They were part of the team to promote their products for the participants. in short.... Ad's possible competition.... or vice versa....

I stopped by after lunch to say hi. One of my long term friend, after saying the initial hello, spotted a potential client, without hesitation got off his seat and went over to his client. I guess, it was more exciting to meet with a potential client as compared to an old friend.....

So I was passed on to his manager, who is also a friend, or more of an acquintance....

After a few minutes of hi, how are you, what are you doing, how long more.... he started to ask more specific questions... eg. What does Ad do? How does Ad's co doing? What are their prospects?? etc.... It wasnt just a simple hello anymore, it was a giant opportunity to fish information out of the situation, out of ME! the wife!

I was shocked and stunned, but I was also trying to be polite by not being angered by his approach. I guess it will be a long time before I send myself up for slaughter again....

Haizz.... singaporeans... aren't we a way bit too realistic?